Severance in Song
by Xylena
Summary: The time has come for Saya's awakening, but her tired eyes see no one on the island she once called home. Guided by the call of music, she follows her destiny to a broken past, an unsure future, a new love and an ancient rivalry forever shattered in song.
1. Music in the Whisper of Water

Saya opened her eyes.

At first, the eyes were unseeing, uncomprehending, perceiving nothing in the swirling world around them. Thirty years of darkness had rusted their function, made them glass over and diminish in the ages of dreaming. She laid her frail head on the cold floor of the crypt, feeling in the ground the drumming of the rain, hearing the trickle of water through a sliver of the outside. Her glassy eyes looked up again, opened wide between ribbons of wild raven hair. But they still saw nothing comprehensible, nothing more than a light like a white fog in a sea of darkness.

Saya's hand stretched, pulling her arm weakly with it as it reached to the light and the whispering sound of the rain. The hand lifted just slightly, struggling to keep in the air but failing as weakness pulled it to earth again. She was _hungry_.

She exhaled and moaned as a burst of determination drew her toward the misty light. Her long fingernails clawed into hard stone and screeched as they strained to carry her weight forward. But her fingers, too, gave in, having only moved her a few inches. She was _hungry_.

Saya's eyes were slowly focusing now, seeing the light sharpen and clarify to form coherent images. The outline of a door was against the silvery light, the door that kept her within this hollow room as she slept and dreamt immeasurably of vivid places, of sounds, of smells and breaths taken in from mythical faraway air. But now the dreamy places dissolved as she lay motionless on the ground, a sprawling mess of hair and marble white flesh with not even the strength to carry forward.

Although the room was silent as the rain drowned away all sound, a song rung in her ears from the time of her sleep. Flowing, reverberating pitches danced in her ears, carrying a recognizable melody to her brain. The lachrymose voice of the cello rung in her mind, calling her in a wordless sound, driving her forward. One last push of strength let her arms strike the great door and it slowly creaked open on ancient hinges. The grey light swirled about her vision, and the fresh dewy air took her senses by surprise. She lay now on a broken floor of stone, surrounded by weeds and her hair growing slick with rain. Her arms yearned to reach out, to go on, but her body was again too weak and the cry of the cello no longer called her name forward. The sound, however, was still there, a song in her soul's depths from a dream thirty years past.

Saya wanted to think, wanted to understand the thoughts coursing through her brain. Her mind was instead a white canvas, empty of thought or memory, its colors masked beneath by a gauzy film of sleep. And she was _hungry_.

Her body, a frame white as snow contrasting with a river of wet black hair, lay still there for innumerable minutes as the rain continued to fall. It remained motionless, a beautiful and freshly dead corpse, until a stray dog scampered onto the stone. The animal was frail, injured by the slashes of a beast's great claws, and limping badly. It approached the woman's thin body in curiosity and brushed its wet nose against the line of her hair.

A white arm flashed out and seized the dog's neck in one swift motion. The weakened animal cried out as the woman slammed it into the cracked stone and ended its life. The woman drew the dog's body closer to her and hid its marred body beneath waves of hair. Two white fangs glittered between parted red lips, eager to taste their first meal in uncountable days.

She was _hungry_.

* * *

_And that ends chapter 1 of my first fanficion! Since I'm new to the site (and writing in this style; I'm used to creating fully original work), I'd greatly appreciate any comments/questions/compliments/critiques/opinions I can get from some of the amazing writers on this site. More than anything, I hope you like it! This has been an extremely fun project to work on and has a lot of thought and effort put into it. As I progressively tack on more chapters, I'd love to hear some of your opinions - nothing would be a greater help and inspiration to me! :)_

_PS: I don't own any of the beautifully-written characters from Blood+; they are the belongings of their creators. There will be some monster-slashing gore and occasional swearing, but it's really not anything more than what you'd see in the anime._


	2. Blue Eyes in the Summer Sun

"Sachi!"

The longhaired girl rose from her spot beneath the palm tree and turned to the sun-bleached house behind her. She hastily crammed her book in her purse. "Coming, Dad!"

"Ah, no, I didn't mean for you to stop reading. Just wanted to let you know that lunch is almost ready!" called the man in his strong voice from the house's back patio. He was turning over the last of the burgers on the grill with hands of experience, making sure to take care in cooking them. After all, he had special guests arriving today, and they deserved the best food these hands could craft.

"Nah, it's fine," assured Sachi. "Dad, I know that guests always come first. Besides, I love it when Uncle David comes to visit."

The man laughed. He looked to the California sun and scratched the grey-fringed back of what used to be auburn hair. His eyes seemed to be elsewhere, thinking of some distant place as if this home was not already paradise.

"He reminds you of Aunt Saya, doesn't he," Sachi stated.

"Ah…yeah," he said casually. "She might come home soon. You know that?"

Sachi's eyes widened when she heard this. "Really? I'm excited to meet her, especially after all the stories you've told us."

"As long as she's alright…" he said, almost in a murmur, still thinking of the island across the Pacific where she remained, the island that was once home.

The glass door to the patio slid open and a woman with long brown hair emerged, carrying a bowl of fruit and another with salad and placing them on a large glass table. She then walked over to the man and poked him in the back of the head, snapping him out of his daydream.

"What's your problem, Kai?" she said to him in her usual playful tone. "You're gonna burn the burgers, you know."

"Ah!" Kai looked down at the burgers and saw that she was right. He quickly took them off the grill and piled them up on a tray, having narrowly escaped ruining them. "Thanks, Mao."

"What was _his_ deal?" Mao said then, turning to Sachi.

Sachi smiled a little. "He says that Aunt Saya will come home soon."

Mao frowned and looked to the ocean, visible between houses in the distance. The shore was so close - just on the opposite end of the neighborhood - yet Okinawa was so far, so alone in the endless ocean. Saya was like the island now – alone. What could she be thinking once she finally awoke? How could she understand what became of her home? "Well, it's about time," she commented impatiently. "Wonder when Haji will finally show up."

"Who?" Sachi asked. She heard that name from time to time since her childhood, but it had never been explained to her fully. It was likely that her mother would change the subject now, or tell her it wasn't something she should worry about.

Mao did both. "It's not a big deal," she said indifferently. Then, immediately ignoring her question, she turned to Kai and took a good look at the patties before going back inside. Before she shut the door, she called, "George will be out in a sec to set the table. He just got in touch with Oscar and it looks like they're on their way here right now. Better hurry up!"

Kai looked at Sachi. "You heard the lady. They could use some help getting ready."

"Right!" Sachi said, turning to head inside. She entered the house's dining room and was sliding the door shut when a wave of nausea suddenly swept through her. Her sense of equilibrium shattered for just a few moments, but that was all the time it needed. The next thing Sachi knew, she was on the floor, and George and Kai's similar faces were looking over her with concern.

"Mao, call Julia!" Kai called to her, helping Sachi up from the floor. "Tell them to hurry it up. I think Sachi's late on her transfusion."

"Alright!" Mao's muffled voice called from the kitchen.

"No…" Sachi murmured.

"Wait, hold on!" Kai called back to her.

George was looking at her in worry. "What's that?" he asked her.

"No…it's not that. Is it…?" Sachi looked out to the ocean again. But that wasn't the source of the feeling. The tingling of a sixth sense perceiving something, the shrouding mystique of a dark feeling, was discomforting to her, but she thought she knew why it was there. Sachi could only remember a few other times she had felt this way, and it was always because of _him_…

"Julia said she'll be on her way ASAP!" Mao called. "Looks like you guys need to hurry up setting that table!"

"Hey, I thought I told you to wait!" Kai shouted back in annoyance.

Mao's head peeked around the corner of the doorway. She was smiling innocently. "Oops."

"Are you alright?" George said to Sachi, his brow furrowed.

The girl wiped her eyes, feeling suddenly better as the nauseating feeling subsided. But that shroud was still there, that strange presence that activated an alien sense from within her. She would have to search for the source later. "Yeah, I'm fine now," she mumbled.

George and Kai both helped her up then, even though Sachi's legs were strong enough to carry her. It was nice to have such a caring family to help her stand even when she didn't need it. If only Tsuki had understood that.

"Right. Kiddo, let's get to work. I really don't want to face Mao's wrath this time," Kai joked.

"I only do that because you're a lout!" Mao called comically from the kitchen.

Kai rolled his eyes, and Sachi couldn't help but laugh a little. She was in a good mood now, trying to ignore that presence haunting her mind and instead focusing on the guests she was about to meet.

The black van pulled in within ten minutes, parking in the flower-lined driveway of Kai's house. Its powerful electric engine cut out without sound, and mechanical doors slid aside as three men came out and walked to the door of the house. The oldest, a man with a strong brow and blonde-speckled grey hair, was the one who rang the doorbell. A fourth person, a woman with long fair hair, was just now emerging from the van with a set of prepared medical equipment.

Kai answered the door and excitedly greeted his old friends. He shook hands with the youngest of the four, a man named Oscar bearing resemblance to the oldest.

"Come on in," Kai said happily. "They're waiting for you out back."

"Uncle David!" Sachi cried in excitement as she stood and ran into the old man's arms. After embracing him, she did the same to the others and returned to her seat at the table. The others all took their seats, and they looked at each other for a few moments as if deciding who should speak and what they should say.

Kai decided to go first. His eyes switched from person to person as he listed names. "David, Julia, Lewis, Oscar, George, Sachi, Mao. Looks like we're all here. Been a while since we've all been able to meet up without somebody being busy." When he spoke he looked particularly long at Sachi, who was the reason Kai was often unable to have these meetings. He would have to carry her off to some volleyball game or music event, which truly was not a problem for him. Kai was glad that Sachi could adjust to a normal time in American high school after having to leave Okinawa so suddenly.

"You said that Sachi needed a transfusion today, right?" Julia asked to Mao.

"No, I'm fine, honestly," Sachi replied hastily. "Although I might need one today, it wasn't that."

Julia's brow furrowed on her still-youthful face. "Well, then what was it? If there's something wrong…" She trailed off when Sachi looked down, her blue eyes directed to the beach in the distance.

Sachi sat in the midst of the awkward silence before she spoke. She decided she might as well be honest. "There was a presence…Somebody is here."

"Can you tell who?" Julia continued to inquire. It was like her, to always ask more about what Sachi said. After all, it was this woman's job to assure that the girl was as healthy as possible.

Sachi shook her head, and her long black hair swung around her face. "I don't know. I really don't. But it was definitely weird. It wasn't_ menacing_ – at least, I don't think – but it was weird. I'm fine now, though."

"Is the presence still here? It could be important," David brought up. "We could use any information we can get our hands on."

Sachi looked around, searching for the source of that mysterious feeling. But now she felt only the salty breeze of the West Coast and the warmth of the sun on her cheek. The presence was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, vanishing into nothingness like a phantom. "It's not here anymore," she said in surprise.

"Oh well," Kai said with a shrug. "Anyways, let's eat. I'm sure you're hungry, right?" he said to Sachi.

The girl looked at her father and then at her food. Her stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Guess that answers his question," Lewis chuckled, his prominent belly bouncing. "Let's eat up!"

* * *

_And that concludes Chapter 2. Sorry if this one's a little slow - after all, it IS an introductory chapter. I'm honestly surprised to get so many reviews after just chapter 1! Thanks so much, guys, for being nice to the noobie! :'D Chapter 3 will be posted super soon! (As of right now, I've written up to chapter 13, but I do want to pace the chapter uploads a little, so I think I'll put one on every 1-3 days.) Hope to hear more from you guys! Any questions/opinions/comments are welcome!_


	3. Silver Blade of a Strange Warrior

Saya stepped on unbalanced feet down the stairs of the tomb, her long hair cascading down her naked body and trailing behind her on the wet ground. The rain was now beginning to die, but the clouds were still thick and blanketed out the sky in shades of grey. On both sides of Saya, the forest was eerily still, with not even the chirp of a cricket or the feathery flash of a bird between the trees.

She remembered the dog whose misery she ended, whose blood gave her the strength to walk for the first time in decades. In her mind, she saw the four long gashes across the animal's back, freshly inflicted and slowly draining the dog of its life.

_Chiropteran._

The word came from nowhere, suddenly appearing from some memory brought on by the wound on that poor creature. That single word lifted the veil of Saya's thoughts, and suddenly images, voices, faces, and memories all flooded into her at once. She remembered the day she arrived at the Omoro, the family who took her in and called her their own, the day that her life reversed course forever. The day came to her when her beloved sister shattered like a glass flower on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, and when the man who swore his life to her gave it back as the building fell around him. Everything came to her in that second, and once the memories appeared to her and filled in all the gaps of her mind, she found herself on her knees, gazing down the endless weedy staircase sloping down before her.

The stairs. The same ones she had walked, on a day exactly like this, with the man named George so many years ago. But now she was alone, looking at the cracked stones of the stairs, seeing how the forest slowly crept in and sprung up from every flaw in this ancient work of man's hands.

_Alone._ The thought flashed in her mind, a single solemn word not spoken but heard. Saya clenched her teeth at the mental sound of those two haunting syllables. She cast the thought aside and reached into the depths of her mind, searching for an answer, a reason why she was here and a direction of where to go. Her revitalized memories began to guide her, showing her that at the bottom would be the road. Someone could help her there, someone to take her home, to the Omoro, to her family. She stood and looked forward now, taking her first steps to the place she would always call home.

Saya's bare feet stepped out and touched the cold asphalt of the empty road.

"Empty." The first word her lips produced since her awakening penetrated the haunting silence. She looked on both sides of the road, seeing no moving thing but the falling of the last drops of rain, the eternal pull and push of the crystal waves against the shoreline of Okinawa.

Saya summoned force in her chest, commanded her half-awake vocal cords to cry out.

"Hello?" she called loudly into the empty world. There was no response, not even the stir of a bird or beast at the sound of the single, penetrating word. The wind swept her word away, carrying the sound in its grip until it faded and died in the expanse of the sky. The waves crashed once more on the empty beach, the noise of its roaring consuming and drowning Saya's word beneath the cerulean surface of the sea.

_Koza_. Perhaps, in the city, there would be people. There would be Kai, and everything would be all right then. But some dark feeling clawed at her heart, telling her not to look. Saya ignored it. Drawing in air sharply, she focused her mind and followed the flow of the waves along the shoreline to the city too distant to be seen.

For hours she walked along that abandoned road, seeing only a few animals scurrying across the cracked pavement in search of food. Her legs became exhausted after some time and she could still not see the city over the forest, so she decided to lie down and rest for a while. She simply let her weak body go to the ground and curled up, wrapping her hair around her unclothed skin. She needed more blood, but for now, she wanted to rest and replenish what little energy she had.

For a while she lay there, moving nothing and thinking about everything. Mixed feelings began to fill Saya's mind, feelings of fear, confusion, and most of all a sharp loneliness that pierced her frail body and spilled across every inch of this island. She felt it in her every breath, in each heartbeat, and heard it with each crash of the waves and whispering of the wind. Questions began to appear in her mind as her eyes closed. _Has it been thirty years? How is Kai now? Was…_the thought trailed off, evoking painful memories from Saya's heart. She did not want to think about it, to think about whether the man who so loved her had truly perished on that day.

_Thump._ The single distant impact on the asphalt was a vibration felt by Saya's left ear and cheek against the ground. Her senses were still dull, but she could tell that the weight of something very heavy had pulled a foot to the ground. Lazily she lifted her face from the road and rolled over, expecting to see the source of the sound down the highway she just walked. The landscape was empty, and no creature stirred. Saya furrowed her eyebrow. She knew she hadn't imagined it.

The shrill cry of an animal shattered the silence and strangled the peaceful but lonesome sound of the wind and waves. Saya pulled herself to her feet and readied herself to fight, looking around carefully for the creature. Her posture was perfect; the stance of a skilled swordsman, but Saya had no sword to use. Only then did she realize how powerless she was, without a weapon, a companion to watch her back, or even the meager protection of clothing. Saya narrowed her eyes and tried to focus, to search around for this new enemy. That cry was of no ordinary animal.

_Up._ The word was from within her, an instinctual and urgent warning. Saya turned her gaze to the sky just before a great shadow plunged to earth to crush her. She turned and rolled across the pavement, looking up to hear a massive crack of asphalt and seeing a dark and billowing shape against the grey sky. Its head turned to face her, and two glints of red glass gazed at her with hunger. A toothy mouth opened, oozed saliva that dripped and gathered on the ground, and released a scream that turned Saya's blood to ice. She shivered and stood tall slowly, again taking up a balanced and ready posture to fight. If this creature had eluded her so easily, came down so quickly, she doubted that her slow reflexes and weak body could fight it off.

The creature stopped screaming and its nostrils flared, picking up a new and more appetizing scent. Its eyes moved from Saya to some area behind her, and the creature sprang from the crater it had made, grazing Saya's leg with the sharp edge of its wing as it passed. Saya turned and saw the creature leap onto something – a living thing?

Then she heard the man shout. _A man_. An innocent person was being attacked. Saya ran as fast as her weak legs would carry her toward the creature. She wasn't thinking; she couldn't help this man no matter how hard she tried. She was not yet strong enough.

A silvery blade pierced the creature and its point glinted through its back. The blade withdrew and the beast staggered backward, off balance now.

"That won't work!" Saya cried out. "It'll heal…"

For a moment, everything was silent, and nothing moved. But then a crackle pierced the silence, and the creature moaned, stepping back again. Its chest was turning to stone as its blood hardened, crystallized, and began to fragment. The wings flared and the creature's legs carried it away, suddenly driven by the instinct to flee. The creature leaped once and took to the air, but its wings solidified in mid-flight, cracking and chipping away piece by piece. They ceased to function and the creature plummeted to earth, shattering on impact like a massive hunk of black glass.

Saya stood there, open-mouthed, looking at the broken fragments of the beast. Something was not correct in her mind, and not coming together into a coherent explanation. No _man_ she knew could kill a chiropteran this way.

"Are you alright, miss…?" the man's voice stammered, sounding embarrassed to see a naked woman standing before him.

Saya slowly turned her head, expecting to see some strange thing looking back at her. But what she saw was a normal man, dressed in camouflage, rubbing his forearm a little. He had no weapon.

"What…?"

"I'm a Soldier," the man replied in an authoritative and slightly accented voice. "I was stationed here to try to control the mice. I didn't expect to see anyone here alive…"

Saya froze. _No one was supposed to be alive_… "If I'm not home, where am I?" she cried out, desperation edging her voice.

"C…calm down, miss. You're on Okinawa…or, at least, what used to be Okinawa."

Saya's hands were trembling now. "What happened here? Please, tell me!"

The man's fingers curled around her shoulder gently, trying to comfort her. His brown eyes were piercing and pensive, thinking about how to put his next phrase into soothing words. "Everyone has been escorted out of here," he finally said. "There are only monsters here now. A girl like you doesn't belong on this island." He looked out to the ocean. "Where is your family?"

Saya was still shaking. "I…I don't know," she stammered. "I don't understand…"

"Miss, I don't know how the Red Shield could have been so foolish to leave you behind. It must have been a hard six years for you."

"Six…years?"

The man nodded. He looked at the thousands of fragments scattered across the road, pieces of what were once a monster. "That's how long it's been since _they_ showed up. How long you've been alone on this island. I imagine you've lost track of time…" He looked back at Saya. "Listen, I don't know why you're still here, or why you don't know what's happened. But I'll do my best to get you out of here. This place is too dangerous for a girl like you."

Saya hesitantly nodded and shivered.

"First, let's get some clothes on you."

* * *

_Omg, guys! I'm so sorry for the delay! I spent the last few weeks moving and finishing up school projects, and I haven't had much time on the computer to post this. So thanks for being patient! (I'll definitely post more chapters by Christmas, I'm sure of it!). I'm also starting to write another fanfiction, this time a one-shot or two-part story for Hetalia: Axis Powers revolving around Prussia and Hungary. Once I get that finished I'll post it for you guys, too! :)_

_Anyways, I hope you like this chapter! It's definitely one of my favorites so far. I'm trying to make my usage of OCs (which I make especially for the story, not borrowing from any of my original work) as intelligent and canon-sounding as possible, you know? I honestly don't like using them, but since this is 30 years in the future, it's unavoidable! So I hope Marcus won't come off as being some silly extra character. ._


End file.
